THE FREEDOM OF 3D THOUGHT: THE FIRST AMENDMENT IN VIRTUAL REALITY

Transcription

1 THE FREEDOM OF 3D THOUGHT: THE FIRST AMENDMENT IN VIRTUAL REALITY Marc Jonathan Blitz* INTRODUCTION There is no life I know To compare with pure imagination. Living there, you ll be free, If you truly wish to be. Willy Wonka 1 A distorted reality is now a necessity to be free. Elliott Smith 2 When inhabitants of the early twenty-first century explore or play in virtual worlds, they generally do so while staring at two-dimensional personal computer screens. In virtual worlds such as Second Life, for example, people stroll through computer-generated cities, shop at virtual stores, or attend virtual meetings, by controlling the actions of an animated figure (called an Avatar ) with a keyboard and/or a computer mouse. 3 While this fantasy life can be deeply engrossing, it is relatively * Associate Professor of Law, Oklahoma City University. For helpful discussion on these issues and/or the article itself, I would like to thank Jacqueline Lipton, Neil Richards, Adam Kolber, Greg Lastowka, Joshua Fairfield, Lisa Ramsey, Christopher Yoo, Deven Desai, Deborah Tussey, Michael O Shea, Michael Grynberg, Andy Spiropoulos, Lee Peoples, Dennis Arrow, Paula Dalley, Vicky MacDougall, Barry Johnson, Michael Gibson, Art LeFrancois, Steven Clowney, Carla Spivack, Eric Laity, and Larry Hellman. I would also like to thank Nathaniel Boyer, Steven Keslowitz, Chris Fenlon, and all of the other editors at the Cardozo Law Review who helped me to improve the article and shepherded it to publication. 1 LESLIE BRICUSSE & ANTHONY NEWLEY, Pure Imagination, on WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY: MUSIC FROM THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK OF THE PARAMOUNT PICTURE (Hip-O Records 1996) (1971). 2 ELLIOTT SMITH, A Distorted Reality is Now a Necessity to Be Free, on FROM A BASEMENT ON THE HILL (Anti 2004). 3 See MICHAEL RYMASZEWKI ET AL., SECOND LIFE: THE OFFICIAL GUIDE 5-6, 11 (2d ed. 2008) ( The SL virtual world physically resembles the real world. It consists of interlinked regions that contain land, water, and air (SL lets you build castles in the sky), with gravity, weather, sun and moon that regularly cut across the horizon.... Second Life is populated by 1141

2 1142 CARDOZO LAW REVIEW [Vol. 30:3 easy to distinguish from the brick and mortar world in which we drive real cars and learn, work, or shop in real buildings: We are on one side of the computer screen; the virtual environment of Second Life is on the other. There is, however, another kind of electronic environment that is more all-encompassing. It does not merely claim a small piece of our perceptual field. It swallows it entirely. It is not simply a virtual world on a screen but a full-fledged virtual reality a three-dimensional space that we seem to be within. In such an electronic environment, we do not merely move an Avatar on a virtual street; we have the experience of walking upon it ourselves. 4 The street life we see consists not of computer animations confined to a rectangular interface in front of us, but of pedestrians, street vendors, and cars that appear to move all around us. In fact, in some virtual reality environments, we might not only see and hear such a street scene, but smell and touch it as well. 5 As one writer defines it, virtual reality involves computer simulations that [w]ra[p] sounds and pictures around us and immers[e] our senses in such a way that the line between real and illusionary worlds disappears. 6 As another puts it, virtual reality (or VR ) creates an artificial environment that displaces our external environment and make[s] a person feel transported to another place. 7 It generally does so by shutting out the images and sounds we receive from the physical world and replacing them with images and sounds generated by a computer and fed to us from a head-mounted display (or HMD ) placed over our eyes. This display does not just feed us these images and sounds. It carefully weaves them together into an illusory three-dimensional world, one that shifts to show the appropriate part of itself with each turn of our heads or movement of our eyes. 8 The sounds we hear seem to reach us from across the avatars: virtual representations of SL members, known as residents.... Second Life gives you the freedom to pursue your dreams and interests. For some, this means having as much virtual sex as possible; for others, it may mean attending a religious service or playing combat games in spaceships they helped to build. ); see also What is Second Life?, (last visited Oct. 31, 2008). 4 See FRED MOODY, THE VISIONARY POSITION: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE DIGITAL DREAMERS WHO ARE MAKING VIRTUAL REALITY A REALITY xxiii (1999) (defining virtual reality as a computer interface that appears to surround the user with an artificial environment, often called an immersive world, or an immersive environment (emphasis in original)). 5 Id. at xxiv (noting that in most virtual environments, [t]he user would most likely wear a data glove, allowing him or her to touc[h] or gras[p] objects in the artificial environment ) 6 L. CASEY LARIJANI, THE VIRTUAL REALITY PRIMER 1 (1993). 7 MICHAEL HEIM, VIRTUAL REALISM 7 (1998). 8 See HEIM, supra note 7, at 20 ( The HMD allows the user no choice but to ignore the distractions of the surroundings. The HMD uses tiny light-weight stereo binoculars to display computer graphics just inches in front of the eyes. The earphones built into the helmet allow the user to hear only the computer-controlled sounds of the virtual environment.... [a]s you move your head, eyes, and ears the displays and earphone present all appropriate viewpoints-all

3 2008] FREEDOM OF 3D THOUGHT 1143 distances of this virtual space. But they actually come from speakers within the HMD. 9 The texture and resistance we feel when we touch an object makes it seem to us as though we are touching real metal, wood, fabric, or water. But this hardness or resistance is an illusion: it actually comes from pressures and tactile sensations artificially generated by data gloves or data suits that hug the surface of our skin. 10 For many years, such virtual reality technology was a familiar sight only in university laboratories. Today, with rapid increases in computerprocessing power and other technological advances, VR is finally moving from the laboratory to everyday life. Video game enthusiasts have already begun using VR goggles and data gloves to immerse themselves within the action of the game. 11 Psychiatric patients use them to virtually confront and defeat 3D manifestations of their inner demons whether these consist of traumatic war memories, or objects of phobia or addiction. 12 Soldiers can now rehearse their combat operations in a simulated foreign battlefield before they ever set foot upon it; 13 medical specialists may soon conduct a dry run of a surgery on a virtual patient before risking it on a flesh-and-blood person; 14 architects may soon routinely walk their clients through the inside of a virtual building before it is constructed; 15 judges and juries may soon survey virtual reproductions of crime scenes instead of just hearing about them from witnesses. 16 instantly calculated and recalculated by the computer. ). 9 See LARIJANI, supra note 6, at (describing how omnidirectional sounds can be generated by an HMD). 10 See HEIM, supra note 7, at 7 (describing how VR can allow people to manipulate and feel a virtual teapot with a fiberoptic glove ). 11 See Justin Mullins, Welcome to Total Immersion Gaming, NEW SCIENTIST, Apr. 21, 2006, at See Hunter G. Hoffman, Virtual-Reality Therapy, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, Jul. 2004, at 58-65; Rachel Nowak, VR Hallucination Used to Treat Schizophrenia, NEW SCIENTIST, Jul. 1, 2002, at 18; Will Knight, Computer Games Can Treat Phobias, NEW SCIENTIST.COM NEWS SERVICE, Oct. 20, 2003, Sam Lubell, On the Therapist s Couch, a Jolt of Virtual Reality, N.Y. TIMES, Feb. 19, 2004, at G5, available at 13 See Mark Alpert, My Virtual War, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, Feb. 2006, at (describing use of virtual reality technology for military training); Duncan Graham-Rowe, Would-be Rookies To Face Video Gauntlet, NEW SCIENTIST, Nov , at 28 (describing how the US army is developing virtual-reality aptitude tests for recruits ). 14 See Michael Reilly, A Wii Warmup Hones Surgical Skills, NEW SCIENTIST, Jan. 19, 2008, at 24 (describing the use of virtual surgery to test effect of Wii-based games on surgery training); Thomas Erickson, Artificial Realities as Data Visualization Environments, in VIRTUAL REALITY: APPLICATIONS AND EXPLORATIONS 15 (Alan Wexelblat ed., 1993) ( An obvious use for [] artificial reality environment is in planning a surgical operation. ). 15 Alan Wexelblat, The Reality of Cooperation: Virtual Reality and CSCW, in VIRTUAL REALITY: APPLICATIONS AND EXPLORATIONS, supra note 14, at 23 (noting that [s]ome applications of VR technology such as three-dimensional walkthroughs and entertainment are beginning to see widespread use ). 16 Celeste Biever, Courtrooms Could Host Virtual Crime Scenes, NEW SCIENTIST.COM NEWS SERVICE, Mar. 10, 2005,

4 1144 CARDOZO LAW REVIEW [Vol. 30:3 One can imagine a day in the not-so-distant future where, courtesy of virtual reality, high school students will take educational field trips to Ancient Athens or Revolutionary Boston, walk the surface of the Moon, 17 or float within a dynamic model of a cell nucleus. 18 In fact, CNN recently reported that an international design group is planning by 2014 to offer an immersive cocoon that will allow for such educational historical journeys in classrooms, museums, or homes: a sleek and shiny human-sized dome that can generate the interactive 3D world of our choice on a 360 degree display screen and full surround sound. 19 And computer graphics engineers have begun to erase the perceptual barriers that separate us from the realm of fantasy not just by using virtual reality to effectively immerse us inside of a film or video game, but also by using augmented reality (or AR ) to make illusionary three-dimensional people and objects spring up in the more familiar settings in front of us. They can do so by using a headmounted display that projects images on a transparent visor one which doesn t block out the physical environment but rather lets its images continue to reach our eyes, and blend into the same visual scene as the 3D images generated within the visor. 20 We might produce similar effects with the aid of other devices, like the holographic TV sets that CNN recently reported may well become available in the next five to 17 See Moon Game Good Enough For NASA, NEW SCIENTIST, Sept , at 23 (describing a virtual reality educational game that will let students buzz past the Apollo 11 lander or the Tycho crater and is also realistic enough for NASA s use in planning missions). 18 See LARIJANI, supra note 6, at 136, 138 (describing a University of North Carolina project called Flying through Protein Molecules, wherein users can interact with huge molecules and fly through their structures in an immersive setting and noting that [r]e-enactments of historical or social importance can be staged in virtual settings and populated with real or imaginary figures ). 19 Mark Tutton, Designers Developing Virtual Reality Cocoon, CNN.COM, Sept. 11, 2008, This is by no means the only company with ambitious plans for consumer-ready VR. Numerous other companies offer VR products to businesses, and individuals who can afford it. A company called Mechdyne, for example, already offers immersive visualization systems to businesses and educational institutions. See CAVE: The Original and Most Widely Installed Fully Immersive Visualization System in the World, (last visited Oct. 31, 2008). A company called Vuzix is already selling virtual reality goggles that allow users of on-line role playing games to create the illusion of being inside worlds like Second Life instead of watching them on a screen. See Vuzix I Wear920, (last visited Oct. 31, 2008). 20 See Ronald Azuma and Gary Bishop, Improving Static and Dynamic Registration in an Optical See-Through HMD, PROCEEDINGS OF THE 21ST ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTER GRAPHICS AND INTERACTIVE TECHNIQUES 197 (1994) ( The difference between Virtual Environments and Augmented Reality is in their treatment of the real world. Virtual Environments immerse a user inside a virtual world that completely replaces the world outside. In contrast, Augmented Reality uses see-through HMDs that... augment the user s view of the real world by overlaying or compositing three-dimensional virtual objects with their real world counterparts. ).

5 2008] FREEDOM OF 3D THOUGHT 1145 ten years. 21 Thus, if we aren t ready to visit the strange and unfamiliar world of Ancient Athens (or if VR designers are not quite ready to take us there), AR can cause simulated agoras and temples to emerge from the floors of our living rooms or the tops of our coffee tables. This technology for creating phantom environments and objects not only promises impressive advances in fields like medicine, education, and architecture; it lays the groundwork for a major step forward in individual freedom. The power it gives individuals to immerse themselves in a world of their choice can be liberating, because it offers them a chance to vividly and directly experience activities that otherwise would be forever beyond their capacities. As the Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem remarked when he predicted the rise of virtual reality in 1964, it might restore to paraplegics, bedridden patients, [and] convalescents (at least temporarily) the power of movement. 22 It might fulfill the dreams of old people wishing to experience a second youth. 23 Indeed, as Jaron Lanier observes, VR not only frees people from the constraints imposed by injury or physical deterioration, but from constraints inherent in being human. As Lanier has reminded people in trumpeting the powers of VR, you do not have to keep the form of a human being in the world it creates for you: [y]ou might well be a mountain range, or a galaxy, or a pebble on the floor [o]r a piano.... You could become a comet in the sky in one moment and then gradually unfold into a spider that s bigger than the planet. 24 Given its capacity to generate almost any conceivable experience, it might provide us with an escape not only from physical, biological, and social constraints, but also from a bleak or oppressive cultural landscape. Those who feel confined by their community s social norms 21 See Mike Steere, Scientist: Holographic Television to Become Reality, CNN.COM/TECHNOLOGY, Oct. 6, 2008, (describing technological breakthroughs that pave the way for holographic TVs that would allow viewers to watch a football match on your coffee table, or horror-movie villains jumping out of your wall and an optical sciences expert s optimism that the technology could reach the market within five to ten years. ). 22 A STANISLAW LEM READER 90 (Peter Swirski ed. & trans., 1997) [hereinafter LEM & SWIRSKI]. 23 Id. 24 Frank Biocca, Taeyong Kim & Mark R. Levy, The Vision of Virtual Reality, in COMMUNICATION IN THE AGE OF VIRTUAL REALITY 3, 5 (Frank Biocca & Mark R. Levy eds., 1995). Of course, VR technology cannot free us from all of the constraints inherent in being human. As Stanislaw Lem noted in his prescient 1964 description of VR, it can change our sensory inputs, but it does not radically transform the mental apparatus we use to process these inputs. Thus, while we might be a crocodile in VR, to be really a crocodile one must have a crocodile, and not a human, brain. Ultimately, a person can only be himself. LEM & SWIRSKI, supra note 22, at 89. Likewise, someone who lacks certain skills like understanding French or being a great orator will not be able to acquire them simply by surrounding himself with an artificial environment. Id.

6 1146 CARDOZO LAW REVIEW [Vol. 30:3 and expectations of conformity, for example, might replace them (for a brief time) with an alternative virtual world where they are free of such norms and pressures. Workers who live a dreary existence following others orders during their days might, in the evening, enter VR to chart their own course through a universe of their own creation. In a sense, immersive VR provides a promising new tool for those who live in inhospitable cultural terrain to act on the hope that sociologist Georg Simmel voiced one-hundred years ago the hope that individuals trapped in social patterns marked by personal devaluation and oppression can recover the all-decisive feeling of dignity and of a life by grow[ing] more psychologically independent of external activity. 25 While not a complete answer to this need (VR would not necessarily reduce their suffering during working hours or in painful interactions), virtual reality can provide both an invaluable palliative, and perhaps a window on, and pointer to, more satisfying modes of dayto-day life. Of course, there are social constraints and pressures toward conformity in even the freest of societies. Faced with physical and cultural constraints that are often inescapable, individuals can still find some freedom from them in escapism. They can, in other words, compensate for unavoidable limits on their physical, cultural, and intellectual liberty by discovering new ways and developing new technologies to extract more of this liberty from the resource of their own imaginations. Yet many of the same qualities that make virtual reality so potentially liberating also make it potentially dangerous. Stanislaw Lem worried that since VR can give vivid form to all dreams, it can also bring to life (alas) even the most obscene and sadistic ones. 26 Consider, for example, a virtual reality environment where someone can stand in the shoes of a murderer or torturer. Even though a film s portrayal of such violence is normally protected under the First Amendment even though a person is protected from government restriction, for example, when he or she watches the scenes of torture or other violence in films like Hostel, 27 Reservoir Dogs, 28 or A Clockwork Orange 29 one might argue that there should be no such 25 Georg Simmel, Subordination and Personal Fulfillment, in ON INDIVIDUALITY AND SOCIAL FORMS 340, 341 (Donald Levine ed., 1971). 26 LEM & SWIRSKI, supra note 22, at See Movie Review: Hostel (2006), ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY S EW.COM, Jan. 4, 2006, (describing the plot for Hostel and noting that the story involves a retreat where clients can arrange to torture and kill someone in any way they fancy ). 28 See Movie Review: Reservoir Dogs (1992), ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY S EW.COM, Oct. 30, 1992, ( [I]n a scene that serves as the film s gonzo centerpiece, we see one of the thieves, a blithely good-looking psychopath... torture a cop... he has captured for no good reason except that he likes to torture people. ). 29 See A Clockwork Orange Overview, FILM4: CHANNEL4.COM,

7 2008] FREEDOM OF 3D THOUGHT 1147 constitutional protection for someone who wants to use virtual reality to experience what it is like to be in the midst of such cruelty, and perhaps be its perpetrator. Because the latter kind of violent fantasy can appear quite real, it may be far more likely than a film, book, or video game to make reprehensible violence seem normal, familiar and acceptable a regular part of one s everyday experience rather than conduct that is rejected by civilized society. Given the prominence that sex and violence have had in popular film and on the World Wide Web, there is no reason to assume that they would have any less prominence in virtual reality. Thrill-seeking individuals might well ignore the historic and educational sites of a computer-generated city, and instead spend their time in its virtual bordellos and prostitution houses. 30 This possibility has already been explored in science fiction: The crew members of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, for example, frequently sought sexual encounters with illusory partners in holosuites. 31 Even when VR steers clear of sex and violence, it may still cause concern. Apart from eroding individuals sense of morality towards others, it might also disrupt their ability to learn from experience what is dangerous for themselves: if people can emerge unscathed from seemingly real virtual car crashes that would be fatal in real life, will this undermine the process by which our brain biologically registers what kind of behavior is necessary for our safety and survival? 32 It may also make escapism too addictive of our own good. Thus, Howard Rheingold argues that the most significant and immediate threat of virtual reality is probably that VR will become as addictive, energysapping, and intellect-dulling as television. 33 (last visited Oct. 31, 2008) (noting that the film s protagonists engage in mindless acts of violence, killing tramps and raping women ). 30 See MICHAEL HERTENSTEIN, THE DOUBLE VISION OF STAR TREK: HALF-HUMANS, EVIL TWINS, AND SCIENCE FICTION 183 (1998) ( since pornography has been at the vanguard of every new image and information technology introduced so far, there s no reason to suppose it won t be the first and most popular game in virtual reality technology like that in Star Trek: The Next Generation s holodeck ). 31 See id. at 206 (1998) (noting how one of the characters, Quark, has created a holographic brothel in his holosuite ); LOIS H. GRESH AND ROBERT WEINBERG, THE COMPUTERS OF STAR TREK 127 (1999) ( we have no doubt the holosuite programs in Quark s library range from the romantic to the extraterrestrially revolting ). 32 Apart from deceiving our brain in this way, VR can produce nausea or imbalance. See e.g., Jukka Häkkinen, et al., Simulator Sickness in Virtual Display Gaming: A Comparison of Stereoscopic and Non-Stereoscopic Situations, PROCEEDINGS OF THE 8TH CONFERENCE ON HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION WITH MOBILE DEVICES AND SERVICES 227 (2006) (noting that in VR use, strong movements in the visual field might produce a conflict between signals from the visual system and signals from the vestibular system.... produc[ing] nausea and disorientation for the user. ). 33 HOWARD RHEINGOLD, VIRTUAL REALITY: THE REVOLUTIONARY TECHNOLOGY OF COMPUTER-GENERATED ARTIFICIAL WORLDS AND HOW IT PROMISES TO TRANSFORM SOCIETY 355 (First Touchstone ed. 1992) (1991).

8 1148 CARDOZO LAW REVIEW [Vol. 30:3 Government officials may thus at some point feel they are authorized and perhaps obligated to guard against VR s potential dark side. The problem with such a paternalistic approach is that this technology may be far less effective at freeing individuals from the limits they encounter in their community if its use is tightly regulated by officials who represent this community. Moreover, this problem is more than just a problem in technology policy. It is, I shall argue in this article, a constitutional problem because the freedom that virtual reality can provide to us, and that its restriction can deny us, is a type of First Amendment freedom. This claim may seem puzzling: many of things that people might do in virtual reality have little to with speech or other communication. The First Amendment right to freedom of speech generally protects expression, not non-expressive conduct, such as driving a car, flying an airplane, or having sex. So where in this familiar First Amendment dichotomy does one place the convincing replica of non-expressive conduct that becomes possible inside a fully immersive VR world? Are we engaging in First Amendment speech when we drive a phantom car, pilot an illusory plane, or have virtual sex, and if so, why do activities such as these which generally count as non-expressive conduct, unprotected by the First Amendment, in the physical world suddenly become expressive in a 3D virtual world? 34 One possible answer a fairly simple one is that such virtual reality acts are not expressive and thus are not protected under the First Amendment. When people enter VR in search of sexual stimulation or the rush of a virtual joy ride, it is hard to describe them as engaging in communication or dialogue of any kind. Rather, some might argue, they are simply using a virtual device as an instrument of sexual arousal or a high-tech substitute for an amusement park ride. The fact that we are driving on a virtual road does not make our driving any more speech-like an activity than when we drive on an asphalt road. It is, of course, possible (indeed, highly likely) that some popular virtual reality activity will qualify as speech such as using VR as a new stage for debates wherein debaters can conjure up 3D models on command as well as verbal arguments; or a gallery for fantastic art shows, with paintings that are themselves doors to other VR worlds; or dramatic performances where actors can change appearances at will. 35 But this is 34 See Lisa St. Clair Harvey, Communication Issues and Policy Implications, in COMMUNICATION IN THE AGE OF VIRTUAL REALITY, supra note 24, at 369, 378 ( Even First Amendment absolutists, who would normally shy away from any restrictions on speech whatsoever, will be forced to... decide whether the simulated experiences available through the VR medium constitute speech or are actually something else. ). 35 One example of such a use of VR is an interactive system, described by its designers as Shakespearean Karaoke, wherein a real actor can experience a play by acting in a scene of Shakespeare s Much Ado About Nothing opposite a virtual co-actor. Lauren Cairco et al.,

9 2008] FREEDOM OF 3D THOUGHT 1149 simply a straightforward translation into VR of divisions that our First Amendment jurisprudence has already marked out in the realm of lowtech activity: When we engage in speech, writing, or artistic expression, the First Amendment generally protects us. When we do not engage in such a recognized form of expression, 36 then we receive First Amendment speech protection only if our non-speech acts constitute symbolic or expressive conduct under the test set forth by the Supreme Court in the case of Spence v. Washington. 37 Under the Spence test, an act such as burning a flag or walking down a street which is neither a use of words nor another recognized form of expression may nonetheless count as First Amendment expression when the person undertaking that act is using it to convey a particularized message to an audience likely to understand that message, given the context. 38 The same dividing line, one might argue, should mark the boundary between expression and conduct in the illusory worlds of immersive virtual reality: When we convey our feelings to others by painting virtual pictures or by burning virtual flags in protest, we engage in First Amendment expression. When we merely ride a virtual car or float through virtual space, we engage in non-expressive acts that are as much outside the boundary of First Amendment as motion in physical space. 39 This at least is one way that the law can answer the challenge posed by VR. But this is not the answer that I will defend in this article. Rather, I wish to argue that while dialogue, story telling, and other artistic expression should certainly receive as much First Amendment protection in virtual reality as in the real world, there are also other acts virtual joyrides and sexual encounters, included which should often count as First Amendment activity in virtual reality even if they are not First Amendment speech in the real world. This is because when such VR acts take place in solitary virtual adventures, then they are no less expressive or deserving of First Amendment protection than other, less technologically-advanced incarnations of our thoughts and fantasies. A virtual world we construct from our imagination should be no less protected than a drawing or animation we create to give more vivid form to a dream sequence, or a Shakespearean Karaoke, PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2007 ACM SYMPOSIUM ON VIRTUAL REALITY SOFTWARE AND TECHNOLOGY 239 (2007). 36 See Hurley v. Irish-Am. Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Group of Boston, 515 U.S. 557, 570 (1995). 37 Spence v. Washington, 418 U.S. 405, (1974) (holding that displaying a flag upside down with a peace symbol constituted symbolic expression where [a]n intent to convey a particularized message was present, and in the surrounding circumstances the likelihood was great that the message would be understood by those who viewed it ). 38 Id. 39 Id.

10 1150 CARDOZO LAW REVIEW [Vol. 30:3 journal entry we use to reflect upon and revise our thoughts. In fact, I will argue, private VR experiences deserve strong First Amendment protection even if they are not speech or other expression. This is because the First Amendment s free speech clause, as the Supreme Court made clear in Stanley v. Georgia, 40 protects us against government restriction not only of our speech, but also of our beliefs... thoughts... emotions and... sensations. 41 It insulates against government control not only the realm of communication and debate, but also the realm of fantasies. 42 That, in many cases, is precisely the kind of realm that VR allows us to enter when we put on a head-mounted display and instantly transport ourselves to an hallucinatory streetscape, city, or universe a streetscape, city, or universe that appears only to us, and constitutes no part of the external material realm that the state is responsible for governing and policing. As Charles U. Larson notes, in such a realm, a virtual act is a private affair, never externally enacted. Like dreams and fantasies and other nonoccuring acts, they are intrapersonal and for the most part, remain unaddressed to any audience other than the self. 43 To be sure, there is an important difference between our private dreams and fantasies and the worlds that we create and explore in virtual reality: Whereas dreams and fantasies arise (often without our prompting) inside of our minds, VR experiences cannot occur unless we link ourselves to sophisticated technology in the external, physical world. We cannot pilot a virtual reality rocket over an imaginary planet, for example, unless we put on a computer-controlled headmounted display and data glove, or use other VR hardware, supplemented by computer programs that will tell it what kind of a world to show us and how to react to our movements. So, one might argue, VR experience cannot be protected by our First Amendment freedom of thought because it is not pure thought of the sort which one court has said is the only form of thought protected by the First Amendment. 44 But that claim begs an important question one which is central not just to understanding how the First Amendment s freedom of thought applies to the realm of immersive virtual reality, but to 40 Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U.S. 557 (1969). 41 Id. at. 564 (1969). The Court in Stanley borrowed this idea and language from Justice Brandeis s well-known dissent in the Fourth Amendment case of Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 478 (1928) (Brandeis, J., dissenting) (stating that the Framers sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions, and their sensations ). 42 See Paris Adult Theater I v. Slaton, 413 U.S. 49, 67 (1973) (noting that [t]he fantasies of a drug addict are his own and beyond the reach of government ). 43 Charles U. Larson, Dramatism and Virtual Reality: Implications and Predictions, in COMMUNICATION AND CYBERSPACE: SOCIAL INTERACTION IN AN ELECTRONIC ENVIRONMENT 95, 99 (Lance Strate, Ronald Jacobson & Stephanie B. Gibson eds., 1996). 44 See Doe v. City of LaFayette, 377 F.3d 757, 765 (7th Cir. 2004).

11 2008] FREEDOM OF 3D THOUGHT 1151 understanding freedom of thought more generally: In what respects if any does our First Amendment s protection of our internal mental freedom extend to acts we take, or technologies we use, in the external world? The Supreme Court made clear in Stanley v. Georgia 45 that our freedom of thought shields at least some of our external activity from government regulation. More specifically, the Court found that in order for the Constitution to effectively protect Americans from government interference in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations, it must protect their right to possess and watch the films of their choice in their own home (even obscene films). 46 This right, of course, protects not only people s right to think certain thoughts; it also protects their right to take certain acts in the outside world such as keeping a film or DVD in a drawer or using some device, like a film projector or DVD player, to view it. The Court felt that our freedom of thought depended on our power to control a part of our physical environment the private library of films and books in our home free from government monitoring or meddling. This First Amendment protection for freedom of thought, I will argue in this article, should continue to shield our living rooms from official intervention even when virtual reality expands the limited physical space of a living room into an almost limitless platform for countless different kinds of experiences. Indeed, one of the greatest potential benefits of VR is that, like a number other emerging technologies, it might allow us to obtain in our own homes, where we are freest to shape our external environment experiences that were once available only in the much more regulated world outside. 47 With the aid of a virtual reality device (or reality engine ), a person may one day find that even in a small corner of a 400 square foot studio apartment, she has all the space she needs to visit and tour the city of her choice. 48 She might also leave the real world behind and use VR to float over an alien civilization, drive on Route 66 as it appeared fifty U.S. 557 (1969). 46 Id. at Thus, Ronald K.L. Collins and David M. Skover are largely correct when they say that in a society of the future it may be the case that pornographic virtual reality could be privately produced and privately experienced without any fear of the law s intervention. RONALD K.L. COLLINS & DAVID M. SKOVER, THE DEATH OF DISCOURSE 157 (1996). This would be true not only of pornography, but also of many other experiences such as driving, flying, or exploring urban architecture that can currently be done only on public property while subject to government regulation. VR allows individuals to give these fantasies a more vivid form, and I argue people should be allowed to do this unless the government can satisfy the very high bar of strict scrutiny in part by showing, for example, that some of the dangers I consider in Part VI of this article are genuine. 48 See Will Knight, Powered Shoes Perfect For a Virtual Stroll, NEW SCIENTIST.COM NEWS SERVICE, Jul. 18, 2006, perfect-for-a-virtual-stroll.html (describing shoes that, by cancel[ing] out a person s steps could let users naturally explore virtual reality landscapes in confined spaces ).

12 1152 CARDOZO LAW REVIEW [Vol. 30:3 years ago, or simulate an out-of-body experience. 49 At the limit, computer-generated VR may approach the power of the most famous fictional virtual reality device in academic literature: namely, Robert Nozick s hypothetical Experience Machine, which could produce in your mind the illusion of any experience that you might actually have in a real world. Lying in a tank with electrodes attached to your brain, you would think and feel you were writing a great novel, or making a friend, or reading an interesting book. 50 Indeed, as virtual reality designer and artist Myron Krueger has emphasized, computerized VR can potentially go beyond this, since it might not only make any possible experience available to you... it could provide any imaginable experience. 51 Some First Amendment analysts might resist such an attempt to stretch Stanley s extension of freedom of thought far beyond the viewing of films to simulated spaceship rides or sexual encounters that look and feel exactly like non-speech actions that receive no First Amendment protection in the real world. If the government has the power to ban or restrict the use of hallucinogenic drugs, why, one might ask, should it not also have the power to regulate the use of hallucination-producing machines? To the extent VR is akin to electronic LSD, as the Wall Street Journal once described it, 52 one might argue that the First Amendment should leave it just as subject to government restriction as chemical LSD, whatever the scope of our freedom of thought. But a VR experience is in some respects quite different from drug use, perhaps in ways that are significant for our First Amendment analysis: it does not directly alter one s brain chemistry or physiological functioning; rather it leaves those brain operations as is, and changes the sensory inputs they receive. 53 It also usually involves a degree of 49 See, e.g., LARIJANI, supra note 6, at (describing NASA s development of a virtual trip to Mars); Andy Coghlan, Out-of-Body Experiences Are All In The Mind, NEW SCIENTIST.COM NEWS SERVICE, Aug. 23, 2007, outofbody-experiences-are-all-in-the-mind.html (describing the use of VR technology to simulate out-of-body experiences). 50 ROBERT NOZICK, ANARCHY, STATE AND UTOPIA 42 (1974). A number of legal scholars and other writers have noted the sense in which Nozick s hypothetical experience machine resembles virtual reality. See, e.g., Tamara R. Piety, Merchants of Discontent : An Exploration of the Psychology of Advertising, Addiction, and the Implications for Commercial Speech, 25 SEATTLE U. L. REV. 377, 379 n.2 (2001); Albert Lin, Virtual Consumption: A Second Life for Earth?, 2008 BYU L. REV. 47; Christopher Grau, The Value of Reality: Cypher and the Experience Machine, (last visited Oct. 31, 2008); THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE MATRIX (Christopher Grau ed.) (last visited Oct. 31, 2008).. 51 NOZICK, supra note 50, at xvi. 52 RHEINGOLD, supra note 33, at For further additional discussion of how VR-generated experience compares to druginduced hallucination (and of whether drug-induced mental changes should themselves be

13 2008] FREEDOM OF 3D THOUGHT 1153 control over, and interaction with, the illusory environment that is lacking in the psychedelic experience: As Jaron Lanier has observed, VR is not passive... [i]t s a waking state activity. It s not like taking drugs; it s like going on a hike. Or... like going on a hike and being the sculptor of the mountain at the same time. 54 Of course, this still leaves open the key question we need to address here which is not merely whether and how VR is distinct from something, like illegal drug use, that lacks First Amendment freedom of thought protection, but whether VR is the kind of thing that receives such protection. After all, not all waking state activitie[s] fall under the umbrella of our First Amendment freedom of thought even if they involve active use our mental powers. Just about every experience that we have feeds and informs our thinking and adds to our store of memories. But that cannot mean that every such experience whether it is driving a car in the countryside, exploring the streets of a city, or setting up a new business suddenly becomes shielded from government interference under the First Amendment. Rather, we need some kind of guidance as to when an experience is or is not so closely linked to our freedom of thought that it should be protected by the First Amendment. Does freedom of thought protect only those acts which apart from being closely connected to our internal mental life also count as speech or expression under the First Amendment s free speech clause? Or might it, as some scholars propose, also protect our use of medications or other methods made possible by modern neuroscience to banish or dampen traumatic memories that interfere with our mental functioning? 55 Does it protect, as another scholar suggests, those non-speech acts that scientists undertake when they conduct a scientific experiment that enlarges and enriches the realm of scientific thought? 56 Such questions about the scope of First Amendment freedom of thought are likely to become more important as more and more of our protected under freedom of thought), see infra text accompanying notes and notes Oliver Burkeman, The Virtual Visionary, THE GUARDIAN.CO.UK, Dec. 29, 2001, 55 See Adam J. Kolber, Therapeutic Forgetting: The Legal and Ethical Implications of Memory Dampening, 59 VAND. L. REV (2006) (arguing that freedom of memory may give us rights against government restrictions that deprive us of drugs or other means that allow us to dampen memories or enhance memories or memory-retention skills. ); LAURENCE H. TRIBE, AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 1326 (2d ed. 1988) (arguing that if the First Amendment, as the Supreme Court has found, stops the government from interfering with our exercise of mental freedom by regulating our private reading or film-viewing choices, it may also do so by stopping officials from rummag[ing] through someone s medicine chest, kitchen, and wine cellar to put together a picture of his oral and chemical predilections ). 56 See Dana Remus Irwin, Freedom of Thought: The First Amendment and the Scientific Method, 2005 WIS. L. REV (arguing that scientific experimentation receives some (not unlimited) protection under First Amendment freedom of thought).

14 1154 CARDOZO LAW REVIEW [Vol. 30:3 intellectual exploration moves into the digital realm (making it much simpler to record or monitor) and as advances in neuroscience make it increasingly possible for people to systematically alter or monitor even some aspects of their mental processes that do not find expression in the outside world. 57 This article cannot provide a complete framework for answering all of these questions. But immersive virtual reality provides an illuminating case study for better defining the contours of our freedom of thought. More specifically, it provides a paradigmatic example of the kind of external activity that I will argue does come under the umbrella of freedom of thought namely, an exercise of imagination that is private in the sense that it goes unseen and unheard by the rest of the community, and also leaves no dents, scrapes, or other evidence of its existence in the external world (except through its effect on the user who has, and chooses to have, such experiences). Indeed, it is first and foremost the private and unshared nature of such experiences, virtual or otherwise, that brings them within the coverage of our freedom of thought by taking them out of the social realm where legitimate government power holds sway and into a private perceptual realm where, as in a dream or daydream, the government generally lacks any authority to issue commands. As Steven J. Heyman writes, First Amendment freedom of thought exists in large part to vigilantly protect the boundary [that liberal thinkers have long] drawn between the outward realm of the state and the inward life of the individual. 58 The privacy of an exercise of imagination generally places it firmly on the latter side of this dividing line. And, I shall suggest, the privacy of such an act brings it under the protective cover of our First Amendment freedom of thought not only when it is best described as an expressive act but also when it is a non-expressive act of imagination that conjures up a fantasy scenario filled with movement or physical activity rather than communication. Courts, to be sure, may not need to apply such an analysis of our freedom of thought to VR itself for some years to come. Many accounts of VR have noted that the carbon copy of reality portrayed in movies like The Matrix is still decades away or further. 59 Yet there is 57 See Bruce J. Winick, The Right to Refuse Mental Health Treatment: A First Amendment Perspective, 44 U. MIAMI L. REV. 1, 20 (1989); Rodney J.S. Deaton, Neuroscience and the Corpore-ted First Amendment, 4 FIRST AMEND. L. REV. 181, 201, (2006). 58 Steven J. Heyman, Spheres of Autonomy: Reforming the Content Neutral Doctrine in First Amendment Jurisprudence, 10 WM. & MARY BILL RTS. J. 647, 657 (2002). 59 Rheingold, for example, notes that we are far from being able to produce carbon copies in VR reality of sexual encounters or other actions that involve substantial tactile sensation: doing so, he says, would require extraordinarily powerful computers that could perform [an] enormous number of... calculations required to monitor and control hundreds of thousands of sensors and effectors. Every nook and protuberance, every plane and valley and knob of your body s surface, will require its own processor. RHEINGOLD, supra note 33, at 347.

15 2008] FREEDOM OF 3D THOUGHT 1155 ample reason to forge ahead in thinking about how the First Amendment law will unfold in the future incarnations of virtual reality. First, it may not be long before VR fact catches up with VR fiction. The noted inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil has predicted that within 25 years, miniature computers will be able to produce full immersion virtual reality from inside the nervous system. 60 Others are skeptical that VR will be able to replace our real world environment so completely so soon. 61 But [g]iven the rate of development of VR technologies, says Howard Rheingold, we don t have a great deal of time to tackle questions of morality, privacy, personal identity, and even the prospect of a fundamental change in human nature. When the VR revolution really gets rolling, we are likely to be too busy turning into whatever we are turning into to analyze or debate the consequences. 62 Moreover, even a hypothetical VR experience is of substantial value to First Amendment theorists: Just as still-fictional virtual reality technology helped Robert Nozick clarify the role of mental states in philosophical accounts of the good life, so too can it help us clarify the position that our freedom of thought and the fantasy and reverie it permits has (and will have) in First Amendment law. We thus benefit from exploring how the First Amendment should work in the unfamiliar territory of immersive virtual reality, and I shall do so in five stages. 63 In Part I, I briefly describe some of the key historical phases, and current developments, in virtual reality 60 Darren Waters, Virtuality and Reality to Merge, BBC NEWS, Feb. 22, 2008, 61 See, e.g., JOHN VINCE, INTRODUCTION TO VIRTUAL REALITY 19 (2004) ( Simulation... is possible... but we cannot reproduce the level of detail... that occurs in the real world. We will never (a very dangerous word to use) be able to experience a virtual beach where virtual bathers are playing in the virtual sea... while virtual palm trees swing in a virtual breeze. ). 62 RHEINGOLD, supra note 33, at Contrary to what some might think, we cannot find such analysis already provided for us in Supreme Court precedent even the precedent in which the Supreme Court has come closest to addressing the question of how much First Amendment protection should be extended to computer simulations of actual events. In Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234 (2002), the Supreme Court held that while child pornography receives no protection at all under the First Amendment because its creation requires the abuse of the children depicted in it the First Amendment does protect the virtual child pornography created by using computer graphics to create photographs that only appear to depict real children. As the Court noted, [p]rotected speech does not become unprotected merely because it resembles the latter. Id. at 255. But unlike the artificial experience of exploring a virtual city, driving a virtual car, or engaging in some other simulation of actual conduct, a photograph clearly counts as protected expression (not conduct ) under the Court s long-standing First Amendment jurisprudence. Consequently, once the Court has decided that the content of that photograph does not put it outside the realm of protected speech, it has no more reason to deny it protection than it does for any other photograph. But what is true of a virtual photograph is not clearly true of immersive virtual reality: Even if the content of a particular VR experience would receive protection in a book, photograph, or film indeed, even if it would receive a G-rating that by itself does not resolve the question of whether to view that content as protected thought or expression or instead as regulable conduct.

16 1156 CARDOZO LAW REVIEW [Vol. 30:3 technology. In Part II, I will turn my attention not to solitary uses of VR but rather the type of VR environments that are most similar to the virtual worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft that are currently available to Web surfers: VR environments where multiple users or players interact with, and communicate with, each other, and where the First Amendment therefore has an obvious role to play in protecting cyberspace communication or art analogous to that which it already plays in real space. In Part III, I will turn to the primary point I have set out above: that First Amendment protection of VR should be much stronger, indeed, at its strongest, when the immersive VR environment is a private space, created and experienced only by a singleuser/designer and that this First Amendment protection should be grounded in the constitutional safeguards for freedom of thought. In Part IV, I extend this argument from the realm of private fantasy to the realm of private virtual encounters with the real world: I argue that just as the First Amendment protects people s right to watch documentary film as well as fiction, it should protect not only entirely fanciful VR travels, but also the use of VR to give us telepresence at far-away places. I also consider a key complication in extending constitutional protection to both virtual fantasy worlds and to telepresence namely, the inclusion not only of sights and sounds in these worlds, but also tactile and olfactory stimuli that far from counting as First Amendment expression often provide grounds for nuisance or other tort claims. In short, Parts II-IV use virtual reality as a lens for examining a series of First Amendment coverage questions questions about what kinds of non-verbal activity count as speech or thought within the scope of the First Amendment: questions about when the First Amendment covers interactive role-play or artistically-rendered environments that serve as a setting for such role-play or other social activity (Part II), solitary creative activity (Part III(A)), observation of the natural world or social environment (Part IV), activity that includes tactile contact or other interaction with the world beyond seeing and hearing it (also Part IV), and, of course, activity that embodies or supports our freedom to think and imagine (Part III(B-C)). In Part V, I then consider another reason for protecting VR experiences both fantastical and realistic: namely, the value they have in advancing traditional First Amendment purposes. Finally, in Part VI, I consider the possibility (touched upon above) that even private virtual worlds might bring significant harms to individuals or to society more generally, such as psychological disorientation or moral deterioration. I will argue that while these concerns deserve to be taken seriously, and may, when clear and serious enough, justify some government

17 2008] FREEDOM OF 3D THOUGHT 1157 regulation of our use of VR, they should not give government an easy way of by-passing safeguards that are needed to preserve freedom of thought in the midst of twenty-first century technology. I. THE HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY OF VIRTUAL REALITY I had hoped to find in you... a fit apostle for the Gospel of the Three Dimensions... but now I know not how to convince you. Stay, I have it. Deeds, and not words, shall proclaim the truth. Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions 64 That very night in Max s room a forest grew and grew and grew until his ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around. Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are 65 Virtual reality first exploded into the public consciousness in the late 1980s when the computer scientist and composer Jaron Lanier coined a name for it 66 and when newspapers and magazines ran stories on it, many of which compared it to drugs 67 or contemplated the possibilities of 3D virtual reality sex. 68 Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia was famously quoted musing: The government made LSD illegal. I wonder what they are going to do about this stuff. 69 The interest has continued, as cyberpunk by science fiction writers such as William Gibson, 70 Neil Stephenson, 71 Pat Cadigan, 72 and Kim Newman 73 used VR as a significant setting for futuristic tales, and as 64 EDWIN A. ABBOTT, FLATLAND: A ROMANCE OF MANY DIMENSIONS 81 (Barnes & Noble 1963) (1884). 65 MAURICE SENDAK, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (1963). 66 MYRON W. KRUEGER, ARTIFICIAL REALITY II xiii (1991). Krueger had previously invented the term artificial reality to describe immersive 3D environments. Id. 67 RHEINGOLD, supra note 33, at Id. at Id. at See, e.g., WILLIAM GIBSON, NEUROMANCER 44 (Terry Carr ed., Ace Trade 2000) (1984). 71 See NEAL STEPHENSON, SNOW CRASH (2d ed. 2000). 72 See, e.g., PAT CADIGAN, TEA FROM AN EMPTY CUP (1998); PAT CADIGAN, DERVISH IS DIGITAL (2001). 73 See KIM NEWMAN, THE NIGHT MAYOR (1990); KIM NEWMAN, BAD DREAMS (Carol &

18 1158 CARDOZO LAW REVIEW [Vol. 30:3 movies, like TRON, Lawnmower Man, Total Recall, and a trio of movies in 1999, existenz, The Thirteenth Floor, and most notably, The Matrix, used VR (or some technology like it) as a backdrop for adventures that cross (and often blur) the line between the real and hallucinatory. So did Star Trek: The Next Generation, where the crew of the Starship Enterprise made frequent use of the holodeck, a room that creates artificial realities on command from a combination of holograms and instantly formed objects. 74 In the early years of the twenty-first century, VR is still considered a futuristic technology. But it actually has a decades-long past. This past is thoroughly described in many books, perhaps the most wellknown of which is science journalist Howard Rheingold s 1991 account. 75 It is, however, useful to take a brief tour of it here to provide background for the legal analysis that follows. As long ago as the 1930s, filmmakers and entrepreneurs were working on transforming the relatively new experience of cinema into a three-dimensional experience. In 1939, Fred Waller developed the Cinerama, an arc-shaped theater and a predecessor to the Omniplex films shown in many modern museums. 76 A 1950s inventor named Morton Heilig then tried to take this virtual entertainment experience one step further in Sensorama, a single-user device that more fully replaced the user s environment by encircling much of his head with a helmet-shaped screen. 77 The device also added smells to the sound and imagery by releasing chemicals to reproduce odors associated with the environment in the movie. 78 Movie makers and theaters have also experimented with other ways to make their films appear threedimensional primarily by providing movie-goers with special anaglyph or polarized glasses, and including within the movie frames the contrasting views necessary for depth perception. 79 Science fiction writers, of course, have been able to conjure up powerful virtual reality technology without worrying about the engineering challenges faced by inventors like Waller or Heilig. In the 1950s, Philip K. Dick began writing a long series of stories and novels in which artificial realities displace (and often merge confusingly with) Graff 1995) (1990). 74 See HERTENSTEIN, supra note 30, at 183. Virtual reality technology (or technology like it) has also been featured in other television shows, such as the short-lived series VR-5, in which a computer hacker and telephone engineer uses a form of VR to visit others sub-conscious minds and Harsh Realm, where the protagonist is projected into a virtual reality war game to free it from a renegade general. 75 See generally RHEINGOLD, supra note Id. at Id. at Id. at See RHEINGOLD, supra note Id. at 54.

19 2008] FREEDOM OF 3D THOUGHT 1159 the external world. 80 A few years after Dick began writing these stories, Rod Serling s television series, The Twilight Zone, launched its fiveseason run in 1959 not with its trademark use of supernatural themes, but with a pilot episode about a strange virtual reality experience. 81 Not long after that, in his 1964 book, Summa Technologiae, the Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem described how such perfect replication of reality might arise not in some fictional future, but in our own. People, he said, would one day develop a science he called Phantomatics that would allow them to substitute their outside reality with one of their own making: A person s brain, he said, needs to be connected to a machine which will supply it with ocular, olfactory, tactile, and other stimuli and which will also read and react to their movements, so that the illusory cars of the immersive world will drive when we press the gas pedal and illusory people will respond when we ask questions. 82 The world did not have to wait long for technological development to begin carrying us toward Lem s vision of a phantom-filled future. The following year, in 1965, a computer scientist by the name of Ivan Sutherland launched what would be the most successful attempt to build an immersive artificial reality when he set forth his vision of computergenerated 3D environments in an article titled The Ultimate Display. 83 Sutherland was a pioneer in computer graphics who had created software called Sketchpad that transformed the previously arcane and invisible operation of computers into something that could be viewed and manipulated on a graphical interface. 84 Sketchpad was a 80 See, e.g., PHILIP K. DICK, FLOW MY TEARS THE POLICEMAN SAID (Doubleday 1974); PHILIP K. DICK, A MAZE OF DEATH (Doubleday 1970); PHILIP K. DICK, UBIK (Doubleday 1969); PHILIP K. DICK, DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? (Doubleday 1968); PHILIP K. DICK, THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH (Doubleday 1965); PHILIP K. DICK, TIME OUT OF JOINT (J.B. Lippincott Co. 1959); PHILIP K. DICK, THE COSMIC PUPPETS (Ace Books 1957); PHILIP K. DICK, EYE IN THE SKY (Ace Books 1957). Dick was not the only science fiction writer of that era to use the theme of virtual reality in his stories. In 1950, Ray Bradbury published the story, The Veldt, in which a virtual reality nursery can morph into different 3D environments on command of the brother and sister who play there. RAY BRADBURY, THE ILLUSTRATED MAN (1951). In 1956, Arthur C. Clarke wrote of a city where people spend most of their time in threedimensional computer-generated sagas. ARTHUR C. CLARKE, THE CITY AND THE STARS, in THE CITY AND THE STARS & THE SANDS OF MARS (Warner Books 2001) (1953). A technology like virtual reality also plays a major part in Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares s 1940 fantasy, The Invention of Morel. ADOLFO BIOY CASARES, THE INVENTION OF MOREL (1940). 81 See MARC SCOTT ZICREE, THE TWILIGHT ZONE COMPANION (Bantam 1989). 82 LEM & SWIRSKI, supra note 22, at Ivan E. Sutherland, The Ultimate Display, 2 PROCEEDINGS OF IFIP CONGRESS (1965), available at 84 IVAN E. SUTHERLAND, SKETCHPAD: A MAN-MACHINE GRAPHICAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEM (Univ. of Cambridge Technical Report 2003) (1963), available at After 40 years, ideas introduced by Sketchpad still influence how every computer user thinks about computing. It made fundamental contributions in the area of human-computer interaction, being one of the fist graphical user

20 1160 CARDOZO LAW REVIEW [Vol. 30:3 precursor to the Desktop interface that Apple Computers introduced into personal computing in 1984 and the Windows interface that Microsoft later introduced for PCs. Thus, it is perhaps not that surprising that after developing a precursor for the modern two-dimensional computer interface, Sutherland would also propose and develop the precursor for three-dimensional computer-generated environments. 85 He did so first by setting forth his ideas in the presentation referred to above and then by creating the first head-mounted display (or HMD ), a heavy machine Sutherland dubbed The Sword of Damocles. 86 The display was a device resembling a visor or heavy set of goggles which, when placed upon the user s head, would simulate the illusion of being in a simple three-dimensional environment, such as a dark cube of space marked out by bright lines. 87 Just as Sutherland was beginning his pioneering work in computerized-virtual reality in the late 1960s, another VR pioneer Thomas Furness began work on designing virtual cockpits for the United States Air Force. 88 This work ultimately led to numerous advances in VR technology, including the development of a Darth Vader-like helmet called the Visually Coupled Airborne Systems Simulator (or VACSS ). 89 Instead of guiding himself by looking through windows and at numerical readings on instrument panels, the helmeted pilot would see a cartoonish landscape overlaid with a grid. 90 This was a graphical representation of the outside world decorated with icons-little airplanes for example, that were color coded to identify them as friend or foe and icons for weaponry, fuel, runway lights, and on and on. 91 These interactive 3D displays were then supplemented by new tools created by other virtual reality developers. Frederick Brooks, at the University of North Carolina, for example, started Project GROPE in 1967, 92 which not only used visual display technology but also added tactile feedback devices that allowed chemists to feel 3D molecular models as they manipulated them like puzzles into new configurations. 93 interfaces. It exploited the light-pen, predecessor of the mouse, allowing the user to point at and interact with objects displayed on the screen. Alan Blackwell & Kerry Rodden, Preface to id. at Id. 86 RHEINGOLD, supra note 33, at See HEIM, supra note 7, at MOODY, supra note 4, at Id. 90 Id. 91 Id. 92 See Virtual Reality, in ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA ONLINE (2008), (last visited Nov. 1, 2008). 93 KEN PIMENTAL & KEVIN TEXEIRA, VIRTUAL REALITY: THROUGH THE NEW LOOKING GLASS (2d ed. 1994).

VIRTUAL REALITY Virtual Reality (VR) is the use of computer graphics and other technologies to create a simulated environment in which the user interacts. While computer graphics supplies the visual component

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